Three multi-year federal grants focused on combating opioid use have been awarded to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.

The grants will amount to an estimated $3,000,000 annually. One three-year grant from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) totals $750,000, and will focus on data collection, analysis, policy review and public education on opioid overdoses.

The other two grants come from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The first will fund $1,000,000 annually for up to three years to expand medication-assisted treatment in the state. The second will provide another one-million-dollars annually for five years to purchase and distribute naloxone, as well as train first responders on its use.

Governor Bill Walker, in a press release, stated his appreciation for this federal funding to help save lives and support Alaskan families and communities hurting from opioid addictions.

The grant period began on September 1st.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2016/09/05/federal-grants-awarded-to-combat-opioid-use/feed/024891USDA to Fund Rural Water Grants and Partner with Kawerakhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/09/03/usda-to-fund-rural-water-grants-and-partner-with-kawerak/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/09/03/usda-to-fund-rural-water-grants-and-partner-with-kawerak/#commentsThu, 03 Sep 2015 17:41:58 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=18224Rural communities — including Diomede, Kaltag, Kotzebue, and Nunam Iqua — have been chosen for a USDA water and sewer initiative.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2015/09/2015-09-03-USDA-Grants.mp3

Melanie Bahnke is back in Nome after meeting with President Obama in Anchorage on Monday. The Kawerak president said she and other Alaska Native leaders spoke with Obama for an hour.

“My message to him was to include people from the Arctic in decisions about the Arctic,” she said. “We can no longer just have people thousands of miles away making decisions for us. We need to be at the table. Tribes need to be included.”

And Wednesday, the White House announced one way the federal government is working to put that advice into practice. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is signing cooperative agreements with four Native nonprofits in western Alaska, including Kawerak — which will receive $46,000.

“Although the funding amount that we’re being provided through this cooperative agreement isn’t huge, it’s a step in the right direction,” Bahnke said. “What USDA is recognizing is that they can’t have a presence everywhere. And they’re trying to take advantage of entities that already exist in rural areas and are delivering quality services to rural residents.”

Kawerak has not signed the agreement yet, but Bahnke said they’ll meet soon with USDA Rural Development to iron out the details, including which services Kawerak will deliver on behalf of the department. She said she expects Kawerak to take on programs aimed at housing improvements, economic initiatives, and the like — as well share information with tribal and municipal leaders and residents around the region.

That partnership wasn’t the only news to come out of Obama’s visit. Bahnke said there’s a host of other opportunities that may benefit the Bering Strait region.

“There are going to be climate change AmeriCorps volunteers, safe water and sewer initiatives, [and] additional research funding available,” she said. “So staff — right now, as we speak — are researching what new opportunities have become available through this historic visit by President Obama.”

While Kawerak investigates potential programs, 15 rural communities have already been chosen for the water and sewer initiative, including Diomede, Kaltag, Kotzebue, and Nunam Iqua. The USDA is providing over $17 million in total to help the 15 communities design new water systems or replace existing infrastructure.

“There are still communities in Alaska that are on honey buckets,” said Jim Nordlund, the Alaska Director for USDA Rural Development. “The incidence of waterborne disease and illness is very high. It’s unacceptable. That money really needs to go to address those dire circumstances. At the same time, we do need to recognize there are older systems that are falling apart and that will need to be replaced at some point.”

Nordlund said USDA is partnering with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) to get the initiative off the ground. Shauna Hegna is the Chief Administrative Officer of ANTHC. She said the grants will provide critical help to some of the 4,000 Alaska families without reliable access to safe water and sewer.

For instance, she said three communities on the lower Kuskokwim River — Eek, Kwethluk, and Akiachak — will be getting first-time water service to many homeowners. Meanwhile, Diomede will have its water catchment system appraised to see if there’s a better option for bringing running water to the washateria.

But Hegna cautions that the process will take time. Between engineer evaluations, community meetings, and drawing up designs, she said it’s usually a year before anyone can think about breaking ground. And depending on the community, these grants may only cover the planning phase — meaning new funding would be necessary before construction.

For now, Hegna said the next step is to meet with each of the communities and match them with engineers and project managers.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/09/03/usda-to-fund-rural-water-grants-and-partner-with-kawerak/feed/218224Cuts to Homeless Grants Threaten Shelters Statewidehttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/02/04/cuts-to-homeless-grants-threaten-shelters-statewide/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/02/04/cuts-to-homeless-grants-threaten-shelters-statewide/#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 19:34:44 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=14286The Basic Homeless Assistance Program grant, which provides up to $6 million a year to emergency shelters and transitional housing programs across Alaska, has been cut from Gov. Walker's budget.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2015/02/2015-02-04-BHAP-cuts.mp3

A program that distributes millions of dollars a year to keep homeless and emergency shelters open across the state is nowhere to be seen in Governor Bill Walker’s budget, leaving dozens of organizations scrambling for the money they’ll need to keep their doors open.

The Basic Homeless Assistance Program (BHAP) provides up to $6 million a year to emergency shelters and transitional housing programs across Alaska. Last year 40 organizations were funded through the program in 20 communities across the state. The money can pay for anything from staffing costs to social work. Every year the grants help more than 13,000 of Alaska’s most vulnerable, an increasing number of whom are children: about one in five of Alaska’s homeless is under the age of 18, and one in three include a parent with a child.

Sue Steinacher with the Nome Emergency Shelter Team said the BHAP grant covers two thirds of the shelter’s annual expenses, and helped provide the money needed to get NEST off the ground.

“For NEST, [the BHAP grant] has been huge,” she said. “It is the grant that really got us up and running. It is far and away the largest grant that we receive, and it funds the lion’s share of the staffing at the shelter, which is essential.”

The yearly BHAP grants could soon disappear, one of the casualties of the state’s $3.5 billion budget crisis. The grant was stripped from Gov. Walker’s capital budget. Walker’s budget director Pat Pitney said that Walker’s first capital budget, stripped down from $550 million to $106 million, eliminated virtually every item that didn’t have matching federal funds; that included the BHAP grant program, as well as another grant program known as the Special Needs Housing Grant (SNHG).

“Governor Walker is putting in a very, very thin capital budget,” Pitney said. With the projected multi-billion dollar deficit, Pitney said “the focus is on reducing the budget as quickly as we can [and] the capital budget is the area where you can do that.”

Mark Romick with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, the public corporation that administers the BHAP funds, said there’s simply no backup if the BHAP program ends.

“There is no money in the Homeless Assistance Program,” Romick said. “If there is no money at the end of the process, the legislative session, then there won’t be any money for us to distribute to the grantees.”

In cities like Anchorage, losing BHAP grants would impact shelters like Brother Francis as well as Clare House, a shelter dedicated to housing women and children. Catholic Social Services Director Lisa Aquino said, at those shelters, the BHAP money goes directly to case management.

“Those case managers work with our clients who are living at the homeless shelters and connect them with services they need,” Aquino said. Case workers connect people with long-term housing, employment, treatment, and healthcare, Aquino said.

“Those case management services are really the ladder out of homelessness,” she added, “and without this grant funding, that latter is going to disappear.”

At smaller shelters, like NEST in Nome, the BHAP grants can be the difference between having an emergency shelter, or not.

“If we have no other funds to supplement the loss of this grant, it would pretty much, it would come very close to shutting down the shelter,” Steinacher said. “It is that significant a grant to our operations.”

For now, Steinacher said NEST can redirect local donations to keep the shelter running, but doing so would come at the expense of the shelter’s other programs, like sober housing and homeless prevention efforts.

Aquino with CSS said the way forward for her organization, and other BHAP grantees, is through engaging with lawmakers in Juneau, and making the case that funding the state’s shelters and homeless programs should be a top priority. A group of organizations representing BHAP and SNHG recipients plans to meet with budget officials in Juneau soon, and Romick with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation said the agency is meeting to review its needs with the House and Senate finance committees on Friday.

Until then, shelters large and small in 20 communities across Alaska are waiting to see if they’ll have the funds needed to keep their doors open for another year.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/02/04/cuts-to-homeless-grants-threaten-shelters-statewide/feed/414286Utility Audit Points to Growing Debt Despite Sound Accountinghttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/22/utility-audit-points-to-growing-debt-despite-sound-accounting/
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:50:11 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=14123An audit for 2013 finds the accounting practices for the city's utility are sound, but operating at a loss that could lead to debt struggles down the road if changes aren’t made.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2015/01/2015-01-22-NCC-NJUS-Audit.mp3

A new audit of the Nome Joint Utility System is in, and while the examination of the utility’s 2013 finances shows its accounting practices are sound, the numbers show the utility is operating at a loss and will struggle to pay down its debts if changes aren’t made.

“Overall the utility’s accounting practices do appear to conform to generally accepted accounting principles and practices,” said Michelle Drew with accounting and consulting firm BDO USA. She led a teleconference Wednesday evening with Utility Manager John Handeland, the utility board, and members of the Nome City Council.

Several times in her presentation, however, Drew noted that the utility continues to struggle when it comes to managing its grants; specifically, the audit found it’s far behind when it comes to applying to get grants and other reimbursements back for work on projects like sewer and water repairs that have already been completed.

“You’re sitting on large receivables,” Drew said to the collected group. Being slow to collect that money, Drew said, can cause “obviously some issues with cash flow, so getting that cash in the door on the receivables as timely as possible, very, very critical.”

Ultimately, the auditors said, those are bookkeeping issues that are more or less easily corrected. The larger problem for the utility could be one of book balancing.

The audit finds the utility operated at a loss in 2013. While far from insoluble—in fact, the audit finds the utility’s total value is over $101 million when all of its assets and other infrastructure are balanced against debts and other liabilities—it does mean NJUS did not bring in enough money to pay its bills and chip away at its millions of dollars in debt (which includes fuel loans and roughly $12 million in long-term debt).

Utility Manager John Handeland said steps are already being taken to address both issues.

“We didn’t make as much progress as quickly as we should have on this,” Handeland said, when referring to being quicker to apply for reimbursements. “I can tell you that, for the last many months here [at the utility], the reimbursements are going in on a very regular basis.”

Handeland said the 2013 audit also doesn’t reflect changes made in 2014, and more changes to come, that he said can bring in enough money to get the utility into the black.

In 2014 and now 2015, he said the utility’s “operation costs are different, our debt service is different, and that’s why we have been looking at both rates and budgets with much greater scrutiny.” At their last meeting, the Nome City Council made an initial approval for a rate hike for the utility, the first in nearly two decades; it faces a final vote at the Monday, Jan. 26 meeting.

Utility board member Berda Wilson said after the teleconference that she wants the utility board to find a path toward financially stability.

“We have a lot of work to do at the board level and also at the utility level to get back to a good financial position. There is a rate study being done to look at not only rates that will cover the operating costs but also rates that will cover the debt service and any capital expenditures that need to be made.”

The utility board meets Thursday, Jan. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in City Council chambers to discuss the details of its 2013 audit.

]]>14123Utility, City Council Grapple with Finances to Keep Lights on into 2015http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/12/23/utility-city-council-grapple-with-finances-to-keep-lights-on-into-2015/
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 22:25:31 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=13707At the heart of Monday's meeting with the Nome Joint Utility and City Council was a question: can NJUS use part of the $2.2 million credit line from the city to pay for fuel?
]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2014/12/2014-12-23-NJUS-NCC-Meeting.mp3

After weeks of figuring out how to keep the lights on through 2015, the Nome Joint Utility met with the City Council for a Monday afternoon work session to finalize a budget and planned rate hike, but as Utility Manager John Handeland took the podium, another of the utility’s financial issue demanded immediate attention.

“We’re looking for new money from [the Department of Environmental Conservation], but we also owe DEC some money,” Handeland told the council. “At present we have funding sufficient to pay our fuel note for January, but we’re short on our DEC payments.”

In short, Handeland said, the utility has enough cash on hand to either make a payment owed on DEC loans, or an installment of its fuel loan bill, but not both. The two payments are both due by the end of the month, or within the first three days of January. Missing a payment to DEC could put in jeopardy future loans that Handeland said the utility is relying on to stay solvent in the new year.

The big question, then, became one at the heart of the $2.2 million line of credit the city granted the utility back in November: can the utility use money from that credit line, established to pay bills that would be reimbursed with grants, to pay for fuel?

Council member Jerald Brown said no.

“I don’t see any authority for fuel payments as an add-on,” Brown said, “unless it’s also secured by grant funds that are on the way.”

The council has already allowed a portion of that $2.2 million to go toward the utility’s fuel bill. City Finance Director Julie Liew said Monday that, despite the city granting what was thought of as a one-time exception for a fuel bill payment in mid-November, the utility still made the payment late and incurred a $25,000 fine.

Council member Matt Culley’s frustration was clear, saying that, despite the city’s money going toward a fuel bill in the past, seeing another routine payment come due does not bode well, and threatens the foundation of the initial multi-million dollar credit line.

“We had a loan for the reimbursements, then we had to go back and modify it for the fuel payment,” Culley said. “Now we have to go back and modify it again, and there’s another $200,000. I mean, what else don’t we know about? And now we have more? It just seems like a hole that gets bigger and bigger every time we look.

“What’s the next one we don’t see?” he asked rhetorically. “I just see a lot of concern and, like I said, a lot of unanswered questions still.”

Ultimately City Manager Josie Bahnke and Finance Director Liew argued that covering the fuel bill would be allowed under the original credit agreement, but only if grant money comes back to the utility, and, ultimately, to the city. Council members seemed to begrudgingly agree, even if many said doing so seems to stretch the limits of the original credit agreement.

Council member Brown said, going forward, he wants to see exactly where the money’s going.

“Is it possible to do a projected cash flow analysis, over the next six months that would show, OK, who all is owed money? And then schedule in your revenue per month. Just to let us see, what is the expectation?” Brown said to the council members and Handeland. “We’re moving outside just the grant and loan anticipation money, so, let’s look at everything.”

But just what grants and loans are explicitly securing the city’s money? That also needs modification after Monday’s meeting. A $1.3 million loan and grant bundle to the utility from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was withdrawn; Handeland and Liew explained the utility was able to quickly replace it with a different loan from DEC, which both said would come on more favorable terms. But the USDA loan and grant was part of the $2.2 million credit line’s “founding documents,” forming a large portion of the city’s security and collateral at the time of the credit line extension. Even if the DEC loan is for an equal amount, the group agreed, such a fundamental change to the credit agreement requires a ratifying vote by the council.

The Nome City Council’s security agreement with NJUS outlines $1.3 million in loans and grants from the USDA. Image: City of Nome. (Click for full PDF)

As of the end of December, finance director Liew said about $1.2 million of the original $2.2 million credit line has been used so far, all of which she said should be coming back to the city in the end—but just when that “end” will be, she couldn’t say.

“Based on the pending reimbursements from the granting agencies, we’re anticipating about $1.4 million [in reimbursements],” she said. “The repayment schedule … it could be the end of March, it could be the end of April, it could be the end of May. There’s no firm timeline, because it’s dependent on a lot of moving pieces.”

The council brought up other issues at the meeting, talking through a proposed rate hike of two cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, as well as possible alternatives when it comes to buying the city’s fuel in bulk. But those issues remained on the sidelines; the immediate payments due dominated the council’s one-hour work session.

With the end of the year just over a week away, the council scrambled to set a date for one more meeting to officially take up the changes to the utility’s credit line, and approve the DEC loan in lieu of the USDA grant and loan package. That meeting is set for noon on New Year’s Eve.

]]>13707City Council Approves $2.2M Line of Credit to Nome’s Utilityhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/11/17/city-council-approves-2-2m-line-of-credit-to-nomes-utility/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/11/17/city-council-approves-2-2m-line-of-credit-to-nomes-utility/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 19:59:37 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=12955The City Council and the Nome Joint Utility grappled with the details of a $2.2 million line of credit at a special session Friday, Nov. 14.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2014/11/2014-11-17-NCC-NJUS-Loan.mp3

It was a hand-wringing meeting for the Nome City Council Friday as council members and city officials pored over the details—and worked to minimize the risks—of the $2.2 million line of credit the city has extended to Nome Joint Utility.

In the end, the council approved the new line of credit, but not without serious questions about exactly how much is owed, how it would be repaid, and who would oversee the process.

It all started two weeks ago after emergency meetings of the utility board and the City Council initially approved the $2.2 million of credit after the utility failed to secure new loans with its bank, Wells Fargo. But it wasn’t until Friday’s meeting that the details of the city’s credit line to the utility became clear.

“We would not bring this today, to you, if we did not feel confident that we either A, we have a plan in place, or B, that we feel like this is too much risk for the city to bear,” City Manager Josie Bahnke told the council at the Friday afternoon meeting.

Bahnke said the mayor, the utility board, and city administers had begun reviewing the utility’s books, and were confident they had verified existing debts and money due back; confident enough to offer two documents to the council at the meeting Friday, a pledge agreement outlining the conditions of the city’s loan, and a second disbursement agreement outlining how the city would dole out the multi-million dollar credit line.

The disbursement agreement agreed to by the Nome City Council during their meeting Friday, Nov. 14 meeting. (Click for PDF)

But surprises popped up as the council looked closer at the utility’s financial needs. Initially the $2.2 million requested only to cover projects paid for by the utility and awaiting reimbursement through grants, and the council was alarmed to learn on Friday that now—included in the original $2.2 million credit line—there is a payment for the utility’s fuel bill. City Financial Director Julie Liew said that payment is between $500,000 and $600,000, and carries a penalty of up to $25,000 for a late payment.

NJUS Manager John Handeland says that fuel bill was initially covered under the former Wells Fargo agreement, but when that fell through, the utility wasn’t able to make its payment on time. Council member Matt Culley echoed the frustration and anger of many at the meeting as he addressed Handeland.

“We get this on short notice, and you want $2.2 [million], you told us nothing about … this was all about grant reimbursements for us,” Culley said. “Now … we have a $500,000 fuel bill that’s thrown in there, something we don’t know … This is unraveling before us. This has many layers as it gets going. It went from just a line of credit for grants and now that’s not the case.”

Culley said he feared more unknown bills could come due. “What else is there out there that we haven’t seen?”

Handeland and city officials struggled to explain the utility’s bookkeeping, a labyrinth of loans and grants balanced against reimbursements and money made from utility customers. Council member Jerald Brown cut through the confusion and laid it out for everyone at the meeting.

“What’s really happened is: [the utility’s] line of credit got cut off, you’ve been paying it down basically using operations funds to pay for grant expenditures, which really put a damper on the utility’s ability to pay for operational type expenses … [and] it’s exacerbated by the mixing of different types of expenditures within the same accounts.”

That accounting “has to get straightened out,” Brown added, and efforts to do so were exactly what the council demanded: mandating its $2.2 million only pay for projects than can be reimbursed with grants; ordering that all reimbursements go directly to the city; and pushing finance director Liew to have full and unfettered access to NJUS’ books.

Brown also required that an third party rate consultant, already set to meet with the utility, report directly to the council itself.

“I want the rate consultant to report to city personnel, not to NJU personnel,” he said. “I don’t want there to be any appearance of influence exerted on the rate consultant. I’m not saying there would be any actual influence exerted, I just don’t want there to be any appearance there.”

Utility manager Handeland was contrite as he addressed the council, admitting that decreased sales, a depleted savings account, and growing costs have hurt the utility’s finances, while unfilled positions—like a chief financial officer—have left an inordinate amount of work for fewer people to do.

“I’ve done as much as I humanly could do, every day of the week, and there are things I was not able to do. And you know, I take responsibility for that,” he said. “I recognize it, the board recognizes … I’ve just been stretched too thin in the process.”

He added that, “to move forward, we have to have a different structure” at the utility.

After more than an hour it came down to a vote, and the $2.2 million credit line was approved with “yes” votes from council members Stan Andersen, Louie Green Sr., Randy Pomeranz, and Jerald Brown. Council member Matt Culley was the lone “no” vote. Council member Tom Sparks was not present.

It was a tense meeting during which the city grappled with an agreement with potentially huge repercussions, but as the assembled crowd gathered to leave, handshakes and even hugs were exchanged; a sign that all involved are concerned about the impact a multi-million dollar credit line will have the city—and each other.